Read Online Enemy Spy by Wendelin Van Draanen - Free Book Online Page A

cameraman was standing pretty close to her. His camera was resting on the pavement by his feet
    I snuck over.
    If only I had an invisibility cloak.
    Or a magic Aztec wristband!
    If only I could get in close enough to…
    Chatty noticed me and yelled, “Scram! You hear me? Get
away
from this area! You have no business being here whatsoever! I said scram!”
    Drat! How was I ever going to…Then I noticed that the guy from another news station had a camera just like Chatty's.
    I inched my way over to it.
    He was holding it by its handle, alongside his leg.
    “Pretty cool rig, huh?”he said when he saw me checking it out.
    “Sure is. Looks heavy, though.”
    He shrugged. “You get used to it.”
    “How's it powered? Batteries?”
    “Yup.”He hefted it and pointed. “Right here.”
    “That's it? That powers this whole camera?”
    “Well, the battery goes way inside.”He pressed a lever and pulled it out. “See?”
    It was big!
    “And when this one gets low, I've got a backup right here.”He popped the backup off the camera, where it was stored. “See? Two seconds is all it takes to swap them, and I'm good to go.”
    “Wow,”I told him. “That is one cool camera.”He let me look it over for a minute, so I said, “Thanks for being so nice.”
    He grinned and said, “No problem.”He shot a look at Chatty and dropped his voice. “Besides, I saw how that prima donna was treating you. Believe me, she's not anyone's favorite.”
    Just then, the police station door opened.
    A man in a suit and tie came out.
    A man in a uniform came out right behind him! Was that… Sergeant Klubb?
    It was!
    Photographers all around hoisted their cameras.
    All the reporters jockeyed for position.
    The men from the station were moving slowly toward the podium.
    I raced over to Bubba and whispered,
“Pssst!
I need your help.”I pulled him over to the side.
    “As the Bouncer?”he whispered.
    I nodded. “See Chatty's cameraman?”
    He looked over at him. “Yeah?”
    “I need you to bump him. Hard.”
    “You want me to bring him down?”Bubba whispered. “I can land that dude, easy.”
    “No! Just distract him so I can pop the battery pack out of his camera.”
    “But why? There's all these other news guys here.”
    Why did my sidekicks always argue with me? I frowned at him. “Because Chatty Adams is not here for truth or justice. She's here for herself.”
    He nodded slowly and said, “Got it,”but I could tell he didn't.
    “Besides,”I whispered as we hurried over, “didn't you hear her call you 'fatso' back there?”
    “Hey! That's right!”
    “You think I'm gonna let someone call my side-kick 'fatso'?”
    For a second his face went blank. Then a light seemed to come on inside him. He grinned at me and said, “Dude, you really do shred!”
    And with that, Bubba Bixby
charged.

Chapter 19
Charge!
    I know from experience that when Bubba wants to bring someone down, he brings them
down.
Chatty's cameraman didn't have a chance.
    “Oh, dude! I'm so sorry!”Bubba said. He helped him up, then “accidentally”tripped and knocked him over again.

    Meanwhile, I was zeroing in on the camera.
    I got my hands on the battery.
    The camera twisted away!
    I got my hands on it again, and
click, thwack!
Battery number one was mine!
    Boy! Was it heavy!
    I held it between my knees and…
    Click, thwack!
    I pulled off the backup battery!
    Lucky for me, Chatty was too busy being pushy to pay attention to what was going on.
    The cameraman was back on his feet now.
    Bubba was dusting him off!
    So far, Bubba the Bouncer rocked!
    He looked my way and I gave him a nod.
    Mission accomplished!
    We raced back over to the rest of the kids. “Stay cool,”I told him as I stashed the batteries in my backpack and strapped the backpack on. “Stay totally cool.”
    He nodded, but he was anything
but
cool. He was amped, and panting like crazy!
    After he caught his breath, he whispered, “I am
lovin'
this! So now what?”
    “So now we